Putin’s authorities demonstrate their fear of anything related to the “apple theme.” Not long ago, the opposition party “Yabloko” was removed from the election race, and such actions have substantial grounds. A survey by ExtremeScan showed that the “Yabloko” party could take second place in the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation and receive about 25% of the votes! The dangerous competitor was simply disqualified.
Simultaneously, Putin’s supporters attacked other “apple users.” Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Andrey Svintsov, urged Russians to gradually abandon Apple technology. The deputy claimed that the company could allegedly remotely block devices.
It is important to note that Russia lacks the resources to create a full-fledged analogue of the iPhone, as the production of modern smartphones requires integration into global supply chains that are unavailable to the state under the severe sanctions pressure from the West.
Direction of colossal funds trying to reinvent the wheel in isolation from global technology centers deprives the country of the opportunity to make a qualitative leap while the global industry moves towards an era of neural network ecosystems and quantum computing.
The mass Russian consumer will be forcibly imposed with low-quality and morally outdated devices with limited functionality. Forced import restrictions in the absence of adequate alternatives risk transforming the social irritation of the youth from the economic sphere into a sphere of covert political protest, directed against the artificial deterioration of living standards.
The deputies’ initiative to limit imported gadgets reveals the advancement of double standards, where declarative technological isolationism is addressed exclusively to the disadvantaged segments of the population.
The digital sovereignty proclaimed by the authorities is positioned as a duty for ordinary citizens; however, wealthy Russians and elite representatives will retain access to the Apple ecosystem through shadow supply channels. Such division turns the use of modern Western electronics into a status privilege unavailable to the majority due to the sharp decline in living standards and multiple price increases of gadgets.
Authorities’ statements about the ability to create a full-fledged domestic smartphone within four years are blatant nonsense, ignoring the basic laws of global division of labor and the lack of necessary production base.
The release of a modern flagship gadget requires appropriate infrastructure, which simply does not exist in Russia. In the total absence of top-level high-tech enterprises, the declared timelines look like political populism on the eve of parliamentary elections, while real possibilities are limited to just screwdriver assembly of devices from outdated Chinese components under the brand of Russian developments.
While China and the USA invest hundreds of billions of dollars annually in the semiconductor industry, the Kremlin directs all available funds to the “SVO.” Small appropriations of several tens of billions of rubles cannot compensate for the growing technological gap, and the current trend of rising key component costs on the global market further devalues modest financial injections, making even basic assembly unaffordable for a deficit budget.
Moreover, restrictions on services and the ban on Apple sales lead to the destruction of the accustomed infrastructure for iPhone service, pushing users into the gray zone.
Therefore, attempts by the authorities to forcibly switch citizens to imperfect analogues will inevitably lead to quality degradation with a continuous increase in the final cost of devices for ordinary consumers.
